Gold purchases to resume with mid-Aug festival demand

MUMBAI: Consumers, now waiting on the sidelines hoping for a cut in gold import duty, will commence purchases once festival season demand kicks in around mid-August, said a precious metals analyst.

“With no ambiguity about duty, demand from those waiting for clarity on that front will commence soon,” said Sudheesh Nambiath, senior analyst, GFMS Thomson Reuters, a precious metals consultant.

Gold for August delivery on MCX traded down 0.05% at Rs 27,925 per 10 gm early noon Monday.

Nirmala Sitharaman, minister of state for finance, reportedly said there would be no rethink on the duty while informing Parliament that Indian imports of the metal at 638 tonnes in FY 2014 were one-fourth lower from a year ago.

Alarmed by rising gold imports, the government last year raised the import duty in phases, among other things, to reduce the strain on the current account deficit and the rupee.